Arizona Fall League
Mesa Solar Sox 10, Peoria Saguaros 1
- Josh Thole went 1-for-4 with a strikeout and made an error on a missed catch.
- Eddie Kunz was decent, allowing a hit and two walks while striking out one in two scoreless innings of relief.
Hawaiian Winter Baseball
Waikiki BeachBoys 12, Honolulu Sharks 9
- Jordan Abruzzo went 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored.
- Josh Stinson retired the only batter he faced.
- Roy Merritt got roughed up for three runs on three hits and two walks in 1.2 innings.
Dominican Winter Baseball
Gigantes del Cibao 14, Leones del Escogido 6
- Argenis Reyes went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored.
- Abraham Nunez went 1-for-4 with two RBI.
At MetsGeek, Chris McCown looks at some of the second base options for next season. A lot of them are named Mark.
Eddie Kunz's editors said his writing was a little ruff, so in steps "Guest Blogger" (their quotes, not mine) Daniel Murphy to fill in. Save a couple of odd grammatical mistakes, Murphy's writing is far superior to Kunz's. Murphy has been out of action since last Friday when he injured his forearm in the Rising Stars game. It doesn't seem serious, and Murphy expects to be back in action by next week. The most interesting tidbit is this one:
But I am looking forward to being back in the lineup and further hone my skills at second base and in the batters box.
This runs counter to what we heard last week, namely that Murphy would go back to left field after the Rising Stars game. Let's hope Murphy is right about this one.
At FanGraphs, Dave Cameron looks at Trade Bargain Endy Chavez:
He is what he is - a slap hitter without much power who doesn’t draw walks.
But he also might just be the best defensive outfielder alive today. He’s certainly in the discussion, at least. John Dewan’s +/- system ranked him as +19 during his time between LF and RF this year - in 600 innings! In what accounts to about a half season of playing time, Dewan’s system judged Chavez to be almost 20 plays better than an average defensive corner outfielder who plays an entire season. That’s just a huge, huge difference.
At Baseball Analysts, Marc Hulet evaluates the big trades that were made last winter, including the one that brought Johan Santana to the Mets. Hint: It was a good trade for the Mets.
Chris McShane has a minor Willets Point update.
At Beyond the Boxscore, Sky Kalkman breaks down the best catchers of 2008. Not sniffing the top ten: Brian Schneider. Paul Lo Duca and Johnny Estrada were each considerably worse, though. For what it's worth, Schneider was approximately as valuable as Jason Varitek and was more valuable than Ramon Hernandez and Victor Martinez.
At Sabernomics, JC Bradbury writes about the surplus of Jake Peavy's below-market deal with the Padres. The value to Peavy in signing that deal was that he wanted to stay in San Diego, so the money he lost on the open market was addressed in the comfort column. If he gets traded elsewhere, he has every intention of making up for that "surplus" of production versus cost, and will probably look for a contract extension.
Replacement Level Yankee Weblog looks at C.C. Sabathia's workload to see if he is a big injury risk.
Does MLB need robots calling balls and strikes? Maybe.
The Phillies may be safe bets to win the World Series, but don't worry: Nobody's been watching.
MTV has made a poopload of videos available online. Some blasts from the past:
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
I could go on like this.